Killingly superintendent among people taking new jobs in local schools

Sunday

Aug 13, 2017 at 3:25 PMAug 14, 2017 at 7:35 AM

John Penney jpenney@norwichbulletin.com, (860) 857-6965 jpenneynb

Eastern Connecticut students will be greeted by new principals, teachers and administrators when classes begin at the end of the month.

In Killingly, veteran educator Steve Rioux takes the helm of the district as the new superintendent. Rioux, who has served in a variety of positions since coming to the district in 1999, including teacher, assistant superintendent and acting superintendent, said that experience has helped form his educational philosophy.

“Those positions were a critical piece in how I plan to do this job,” he said. “I have that first-hand experience in collaborating with teachers and seeing the challenges at the different grade levels.”

Rioux, whose children have gone through the Killingly school system, said his main focus will be creating conditions for student success.

“I want to make sure teachers have the tools to ensure kids will excel,” he said. “I want to make the curriculum relevant, to get kids excited and want to come to school.”

Former Putnam High School Principal Paul Brenton will move into the Killingly assistant superintendent slot.

“He brings in a perspective from other districts and we have the same philosophical beliefs regarding students hat include high expectations,” Rioux said.

Two Norwich elementary schools will welcome new principals this academic year. Susan Lessard, a former Cheshire public schools assistant principal and reading specialist, was selected as the new principal for the Stanton Network School. Heidi Davis, who worked as a teacher and assistant principal in Killingly, was selected as principal for the Samuel Huntington School.

In addition to the principal hires, Superintendent Abby Dolliver said the district hired Jenna Tenore as its new supervisor of student services and is making some teacher shifts to address large elementary school class sizes.

"Some of our primary grade classes were very large with between 28 or 29 students," she said. "We're moving some teachers from the sixth-grade level to the primary grades to help alleviate that issue, since we're not hiring new teachers now. We did have 11 teacher retirements and are sharing some positions between schools."

In Lebanon, Rita Quiles-Glover, who has served as assistant principal of Griswold Elementary School for the last four years, will take over as principal of Lebanon Elementary School.

Quiles-Glover began her career in 2001 with Waterford Public Schools as a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher, which she continued for 12 years, she said. In 2013, she was named assistant principal of Griswold Elementary School, a large school with about 750 students.

In Plainfield, no new principals were hired, though the district is adding two new kindergarten positions as part of a plan to expand all-day kindergarten in town, Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro said.

“We’ve also hired Mark Spalding as our new director of student services,” DiPietro said. “As part of that job, he’ll be handling special education and drop-out and attendance issues.”

Editor's note: The name of Norwich's supervisor of student services was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.